sharing and encouraging joy in life

Friday’s Fresh Five! (6/11/10)

My garden is so lush and lovely right now and would be perfect, if not for the glaring exception of the fountain in the backyard. Thick, icky green was the only way to describe it yesterday. So what to do? Well, a little algaecide goes a long way or so I’ve just learned – now I have a fountain full of bubbles! It’s fun to look at, but I’m really concerned about little birds taking bubble baths in it. It’s time to use elbow grease instead of chemicals! Be kind to the earth.

#1 – Random Acts of Kindness
“Random acts of kindness are those sweet or lovely things we do for no reason except that, momentarily, the best of our humanity has sprung into full bloom. When you spontaneously give a stranger the bouquet of red carnations you had meant to take home to your own dinner table, when you give your lunch to the guitar-playing homeless person who makes music at the corner between your two subway stops, when you anonymously put coins in someone else’s parking meter because you see the red “EXPIRED” medallion signaling to the meter maid – you are doing not what life requires of you, but what the best of your human soul invites you to do.” Daphne Rose Kingma

Make someone’s life a little easier, a little better, perhaps a little happier, by performing a random act of kindness for them. Here are a just a few suggestions that I’ve not mentioned before on this blog:

*Call a soup kitchen to find out how many people they generally serve. Then offer to prepare and deliver muffins, salad, or dessert for one of their meals.

*Share a recipe.

*Tell someone you appreciate them.

*Park farther out, giving others the choice parking spots.

*Offer to return a shopping cart to the store for someone loading a car.

*Roll an elderly neighbor’s garbage cans back up the driveway at the end of trash pick-up day.

*Volunteer to drive a sick friend to his doctor’s appointment or to his chemo appointment.

*Donate blood.

Please send me your ideas for random acts of kindness so I may share them with others.

#2 – Cutting Roses
What time of day is it best to cut roses from your garden? According to Rayford Clayton Reddell’s book A Year In The Life of a Rose, “Rosebushes begin drawing in moisture with the first hint of approaching dusk, and they hold it until the morning light gets strong. Since you want blooms with as much moisture in them as possible, cut either before midmorning or after midafternoon . . . . What you most want to avoid is cutting during midday, especially during hot weather, when blooms are limp.”

#3 – Reuse Those Plastic Storage Bags
Why waste plastic bags? As long as ziploc-type plastic storage bags can be washed out, I reuse them. Unless they contained something gross or raw, I wash them out in sudsy water, rinse them, and then let them air dry. The best way to air dry them is to open them and invert them over something like a bottle or a vase. I separate these used bags from the new ones and use them only for storing nonfood items. These used bags came in very handy during my recent trip to Greece; they held sundries, medicines, cosmetics, scarves, etc.

#4 – Unkind Food
According to the most recent issue of Nutrition Action, The Cheesecake Factory’s Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake” . . . weighs in at three-quarters of a pound . . . Just 1,670 calories and 2-1/2 days’ worth of saturated fat (48 grams), nearly all of it from chocolate, sugar, cream, white flour, and butter.”

#5 – Make a Living and Making a Life“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”Winston Churchill

It’s going to be a warm weekend in my part of the world and I’m ready for it! Have a good weekend!

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